31. Bradley
brADLEY
“I’m sorry.”
Zira’s apology cuts through me like a blade, so I take my hand off the steering wheel and cover her hands clasped in her lap. “This is not your fault.”
“If I’d remembered sooner—”
“Zira, it’s not your fault, okay? Don’t you dare take the blame for this. I need you to trust me right now, okay?”
She nods quickly, but from how she chews on her lower lip, she’s not convinced.
Taking Zira out of the city and into nature was a good idea at the time, but now we’re racing back because no one is answering their phones.
There might be a hundred reasons as to why, but until I hear from any of my team, getting back to New York is a priority.
I’ve tried Raven countless times but her phone simply rings out without hindrance.
As we drive, my phone on the dash connects to Valentina.
Her phone also rings out.
The chances of both of them being unable to reach their phones are slim. I fight to keep my thoughts measured and contained, trying to reason that Valentina could be training, Raven could be in the shower, or they could be both with one another at yoga or something else.
But each ring of the phone that echoes through the silence in the car grates on me a little more with each passing second. My stomach flips and my heart begins to race as the New York skyline comes into view and still, no one picks up their damn phone.
After caressing Zira’s knuckles, I end my attempts to call Valentina and switch to Cassian instead. The call connects with a beep and starts ringing with the same tone that stokes the knot of concern forming right in my gut.
Answer the phone. Someone answer their damn phone—
“Hello?” Cassian’s breathless tones fill the car and my heart lifts.
“Fucking hell,” I snap. “Is everyone away from their phone right now?”
“I was in the shower,” Cassian pants. “You good? Everything okay with Zira?”
“Hi, Cassian,” Zira says softly.
“Oh, hey. Group call. Cool. What’s up?”
“Cassian, did anyone find a GPS when they were taking that car apart?”
“The diamond car?” Something clatters behind Cassian followed by a gurgle of water.
“Yes.”
“Uh… not that I can think. No one mentioned it to me, but if anyone found one, Raven would know.”
“Where is Raven?”
“Let me check.” The sharp tack of nails on screen follows Cassian’s voice as he scrolls through his phone. “She came here to shower a couple of hours ago, but she’s back at the garage with Valentina.”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
Cassian snorts softly. “You know how she gets. Put her on a project and she’s obsessive. A freaking hurricane could tear through that place and she wouldn’t notice.”
My grip on the wheel tightens as we race through a red light and Zira covers her mouth to swallow her squeal of alarm.
“Cassian, no one’s answering their phone.”
The silence that comes from my friend is deafening. When he speaks, the casual softness has vanished from his voice and it’s as strained as each beat of my heart. “I’ll meet you at the garage.”
“I’m still some time out, Cassian. Be careful.”
“Always.”
“Oh, God,” Zira groans as the call ends. “How can you sit there and tell me this isn’t my fault? Something’s happened, I know it has, and if it’s because of me and that blasted car? Oh, God.” She rocks forward in her seat. “I’m sorry.”
“Zira, please, listen to me. I’m concerned, I won’t hide that.
But this isn’t your fault. Look, we keep a lot of stuff away from the Empire State for security reasons.
It hardly works as a secret headquarters if we take all our work there, but if Harris has a GPS embedded in that car, then it’s a safehouse he’ll head to.
I wouldn’t give him the credit to be smart enough to do that, but if he was waiting for you to bring the diamonds to him and got impatient, then that’s where he’d go. ”
“Your friends wouldn’t have found it?”
“My team are skilled. Raven is the best of the best, but she’s as good with a gun as I am with a laptop.
If there were a GPS to find, I would bet that she found it, but I put so much pressure on her, on all of them, to catalogue the diamonds and get them back to the Irish.
If she missed it and it was still active…
” My knuckles fade to white against the steering wheel.
“It’s my fault if anything has happened to them.
And Harris?” Shaking my head, my teeth briefly sink into my cheek.
“There’s no accounting for what a crazy man with nothing to lose will do to get what he wants. ”
Zira nods along to everything I say but at a glance, she seems unconvinced.
As much as I want to reassure her, I can’t.
Not if something’s happened to Raven or Valentina.
Part of me regrets leaving the city, but it’s the same part of me that can’t ever let go of things or take a day off.
The good done through my trip with Zira is unimaginable, never mind the growing feelings for her that rest just behind my heart.
But if my choice puts my team in danger?
Zira’s not the only one who won’t be able to forgive herself.
We screech into the parking lot of the safehouse twenty minutes later. Cassian’s already there and melts out of the tree line, clasping an assault rifle as I slam on the brakes and bring the car to a stop. Snatching my phone, I leap from the car.
“Anything?”
“Did a perimeter sweep,” Cassian replies. “Nothing so far. I’ve got men stationed all around but we haven’t gone in yet. You armed?” His eyes dart down me, and I nod.
“Always.” Pulling my gun from my hip, I quickly check that it’s loaded just as Zira joins me. “Zira, stay in the car.”
“What? I want to come!”
“No.”
“You can’t just sideline me! If I had something to do with this, then I want to help. Please, Bradley. Let me help!”
“Zira.” Moving past Cassian, I cup the side of her face and meet her worried gaze. “I’m not sidelining you but you have no weapons training for what we’re about to do, okay? So I need you here and safe. I can’t go in there and focus while I’m worried about you out here, okay?”
Her lips part but her protest dies on her tongue as she listens to me and slowly, she nods. “Okay. Okay. Just…” Both her hands briefly touch my chest. “Be careful, okay?”
“Always.” Leaning forward, I kiss her forehead and then step away, but I keep one eye on her until she’s safely back in the car. Then Cassian and I lightly jog toward the garage.
“I’ve messaged one of my guys to collect her,” Cassian says. “She’ll be safe.”
“Thanks.”
“Good trip, though?” Despite the worry of the situation, when we reach the door leading into the reception area, Cassian flashes me a wink.
“I’ll tell you later.” Lowering my voice, I lift my gun to my chest and keep it close, then reach my other hand for the door. The handle gives way immediately, and the door very slowly swings open with a squeak of hinges that sends a jolt down my spine.
Cassian and I exchange a look, then I lean against the door and hold it open while Cassian sweeps inside.
There’s a chance Harris is still here, which means we need to maintain the element of surprise.
As I creep over peeling tiles and past walls filled with ancient garage services and adverts from decades ago, I pray I’m walking into Valentina asleep and Raven dancing in her headphones, completely blind to the situation we’ve found ourselves in.
My heart sinks further as we close in on the closed white door, keeping the reception separate from the rest of the garage. Cassian approaches it first, then tilts his head and angles his ear toward the door. Straining to listen, a faint rumble catches my attention.
A car engine?
No, it’s something else.
He grasps the knob and turns it slowly, leaning his shoulder on the door and easing it open with a soft grunt. The rumbling reveals itself to be the thrumming beat of music rising from somewhere deeper in the garage.
Shit.
It’s not loud enough to mask a phone call, that’s for sure.
Keeping low on our haunches, Cassian and I sweep into the garage with weapons raised and hearts hammering, ready to open fire or negotiate, depending on what we find inside.
The middle of the floor is taken up by the shell frame of a car with all of its pieces and components scattered around it in a spiral, like a blueprint come to life before my very eyes.
A single bulb swings lazily back and forth from the ceiling, and one workbench is piled with empty food boxes from our home.
Several bottles of soda line the back of the bench as we pass it.
My attention sweeps back and forth like a radar as we approach the car and then split, Cassian moving around the right side while I loop around the back toward the left.
Music rises from an open laptop on the workbench on the other side of the room.
As we come around the car, several of the carefully laid out pieces of the vehicle have been kicked and scattered aside, breaking the pattern.
“Raven!” Cassian darts forward over the pieces toward Raven. She’s lying face down on the ground with blood pooling out near her head.
“Shit!”
Cassian slides on the ground as he reaches her and gently presses his fingers through her hair to the side of her neck. I can barely stomach watching as ice-cold fear grips me, my mind spiraling with the dreaded answer Cassian will give when he lifts his head.
Another sweep of the room to distract myself shows that there’s no one else here. No Harris. No one.
“She’s alive,” Cassian gasps, setting his rifle aside and grabbing his phone. “Shit, it’s okay. She’s alive.”
As he calls for medical, I lower my gun and my stomach twists. “So where’s Valentina?”